BUSINESS IN BRIEF

Published October 16, 2011 - 7:41am

Congress OKs trade deals
The American Congress passed three long-stalled free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. Tak­en together, the pacts represent a big leap forward in America’s commitment to free trade, though they were passed only after five years of tortuous negotiations in Con­gress on extending aid to American work­ers who lose their jobs because of cheaper labour abroad.

China slams U.S. tariffs bill
It was a mixed week for free traders, as China stepped up its criticism of a bill in Congress that would impose retaliatory tariffs on countries with “misaligned" currencies, which is aimed at China’s export-boosting policy of maintaining a weak yuan. Senators passed the bill this week. Beijing warned of severe conse­quences for global trade if the measure becomes law, though that seems unlikely, with Republican leaders in the House inclined to resist taking up the legislation.

Chinese export growth slows
New figures showed Chinese exports growing at a much slower rate than had been forecast, even given the ailing econo­mies in Europe and America. China’s exports in September grew by 17.1 per cent compared with the same month last year, down from a growth rate of 24.5 per cent in August. Exports to Europe rose by 9.8 per cent, compared with 22.3 per cent in August.

China buys up bank shares
China’s sovereign wealth fund intervened to shore up confidence in the country’s banks for the first time since the height of the financial crisis, by increasing its hold­ings in the four biggest lenders. The banks’ share prices had come under pres­sure partly because of concerns about the opacity of data on bank debt and company earnings, and partly on concerns about the economy.

Eurobank package backed
Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy put their collective heft behind a “comprehensive package" for recapitalizing the eurozone’s banks, which is due to be discussed at a summit on Oct. 23. The European Central Bank on Oct. 6 reactivated measures it had taken previously to head off a banking liquidity crisis, by offering to buy up to 40 billion euros (US$55 billion) in bonds issued by the banks, and by launching two long­term refinancing options.

British jobless at record 2.57m
The number of unemployed in Britain rose to a 17-year high of 2.57 million. With gross domestic product growth virtually non-existent, the Bank of England on Oct. 6 added 75 billion pounds (US$118 billion) to its asset-purchase program, or quantitative easing, bringing the tally to 275 billion pounds, so far.

U.S. banks face new rule
Banking regulators in America released a consultation document ahead of the im­plementation of the “Volcker rule" next year. The rule would limit proprietary trading at banks and restrict the invest­ments they can make in hedge funds and private equity. The rule is expected to come into force next July. Banks have until mid-January to air their views offi­cially.

Chinese Walmart staff probed
At least 37 employees at a Walmart store in the city of Chongqing, in southwest China, were detained for questioning. The local government said it was investigating whether ordinary pork was being mis-sold as the costlier organic sort. With a big reshuffle in the Communist Party due next year, politicians are keen to appear tough on food prices, and on foreign firms.

BlackBerry users silenced
BlackBerry users cursed their devices, which stopped working because of prob­lems at servers for which a backup system failed to work. About 10 million of Black-Berry’s 70 million customers were affect­ed, mostly in Europe and the Middle East.

Research In Motion , which makes the BlackBerry, was criticized for responding slowly to the highly irritating outage, another blow to the company as it grap­ples with its sliding share of the smart­phone market.